


One Night at Aria Flats

by TtotheCofA



Series: Tales from Tempo [12]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: I'm still being incredibly self-indulgent with my writing, Very OC heavy, not very long this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 20:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20345902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TtotheCofA/pseuds/TtotheCofA
Summary: Graduation is a time for looking to the future, and planning your next steps....but for one night, Gawain and his friends just want to enjoy the newfound freedom.





	One Night at Aria Flats

**Author's Note:**

> Another writing prompt from the Tumblr blog, this time focused around a happy memory for Gawain Kingsmen, back in the 80s.

_“The wild dogs cry out in the night_  
_As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company_  
_I know that I must do what’s right_  
_As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti…”_

The distant strains of “Africa” drifted from a boombox somewhere across the post-graduation gathering. Gawain leaned back against the cab of the borrowed pick-up truck, and let his hands rest in his lap. A little ways away, the rest of his graduating class was celebrating the end of their mandatory schooling, but he felt…removed from the jovial atmosphere.

For years, he’d prioritized his grades over his social life. He’d turned down birthday parties and school trips in favor of extra classes and studying. Now…there was nothing left. No extra classes he hadn’t already taken, no tests he still had to prepare for. He’d already applied to all the colleges on his list and them some, and was just waiting to hear back from any who might want to take him.

Is this what he’d been missing all this time….? This liberating feeling of having nothing to do, and no deadlines pressing down on him? An elbow jabbed him lightly in the ribs, and Gawain tore himself from his melancholy introspection to whine, and recoil as if he’d taken some mortal wound.

“Ow! Liz!” The young man protested with a smile he couldn’t quite hide. “What was that for?”

“_That_ was for frowning during our big party.” Lizabeth, too, lost the fight to keep her smile hidden. “This is a celebration, space nerd. No sad thoughts!”

“They weren’t _sad_ thoughts-“ Gawain tried to protest.

“No philosophical thoughts, either!” Bill added from where he lay stretched out in the bed of the truck, his head resting in Bako’s lap. “We have the rest of our lives to think sad thoughts. Tonight, they have _no_ place!” The new-graduate began to sing along to the distant radio tunes, to the mocking dismay of his pillow. Gawain let his smile widen, and picked up the soda can he’d left on the truck bed by his feet.

Bill was right…he could worry about college and admissions and where his life was going tomorrow. Tonight, he was under none of those pressures, and nobody here was going to hold him to them.

_“It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you_  
_There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do_  
_I bless the rains down in Africa_  
_Gonna take some time to do the things we never had…“_


End file.
